Shinobi & Spooks
by Dylan Millwood
Summary: Based off of Luigi's Mansion, Naruto wins a mansion in a contest he never even entered and now he has to save his friends while at the same time facing his greatest fear ever... ghosts.
1. Chapter 1

AUTHOR NOTE: HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYBODY! I WANTED TO ADD SOMETHING NEW TO FANFICTION AND GIVE MY READERS A "TREAT". LO AND BEHOLD! NOBODY'S DONE THIS CROSSOVER BEFORE, AND THE TIMING IS PERFECT!

TO EVERYONE WHO ADDS THIS TO THEIR FAVORITES AND ALERTS, THANKS FOR LIKING MY STORY SO MUCH, BUT BE SURE TO REVIEW AND WHILE A 'KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK', 'UPDATE SOON', AND 'PLEASE CONTINUE' REVIEWS ARE ALL WELL AND GOOD, BE SURE TO TELL ME _**WHAT**_ YOU LIKE ABOUT IT!

 **BEFORE WE BEGIN, I JUST WANT TO GIVE A BIG "THANK-YOU" SHOUT-OUT TO MY FRIEND AND CO- AUTHOR FOR THIS STORY: "** **MichaelTheFox"!**

* * *

"Phew... that was quite some struggle you put up there, big guy... but in the end, it looks like victory's for the little guy." Professor E. Gadd a ghost hunter and scientist said to the now struggling ghost inside the compartment of his latest invention, the Poltergust 3000, a special vacuum cleaner with the ability to capture ghosts, as he began to walk back to his lab in Boo Woods, completely unaware of a glowing pair of red eyes watching him in anger.

The one who was watching the doctor leave was none other than King Boo, the king and leader of the Boos under his control saw what has become of one of his most mightiest Boos in his army and he was furious and vowed revenge for this humiliating blow to his army.

Meanwhile, E. Gadd made it to his laboratory and looked at another one of his inventions, a special machine that had the power to turn any ghosts trapped within the Poltergust 3000 into paint portraits. The process was simple all would do was connect his Poltergust 3000 to a metal lip, then the blue section of the machine separates the common ghosts from the portrait ghosts, then machine then finishes it's process by resizing, squashing, and finally framing the ghosts. The portraits are then dispensed from the end of the machine, fully able to be hung in the gallery for later viewing. Once the process was finished he looked at his new Boolossus painting with pride as he had just hung it up upon his gallery wall feeling tired from the hard fought battle, then retired to his bed to get a good night sleep.

Meanwhile, back with King Boo, he was planning the perfect revenge against the professor for Boolossus and then a Boo suddenly appeared and whispered something to the king and then the king then began to have a fanged grin on his face as he listened, "Gather all of the Boos available... we leave for E. Gadd's lab immediately..."

Professor E. Gadd was sleeping peacefully until he began to heard many noises and sounds until he heard the door leading to his lab suddenly burst wide open and then heard the sounds of many Boos laughing and ran to his lab and to his shock and horror h saw King Boo and his army of Boos raid his gallery and taking the portraits off the walls including the portrait of Boolossus and a strange ghost named Bogmire, then he saw King Boo flip the switch of the Ghost Portrificationizer to reverse and the Boos all placed the portraits into the machine and watched in horror as all of the ghosts that he captured were fully unleashed and were now fleeing from the lab and with their work finished the Boos all followed the released ghosts and ran after them and then he suddenly felt the ground tremble as a sinister looking mansion suddenly appeared and right in front of the entrance of his lab and then he saw all of the freed ghosts enter the mansion to hide.

Inside the Mansion, King Boo told all of the Boos that this was all just phase one of his plan as he wanted to make some portraits of his own, but with people and he also had just two in mind to begin his collection... the Mario brothers. So he had one Boo make a false letter telling Luigi that he won this mansion in a contest and sent him a map to lead him to the location and he knew that he and Mario would come together and that's when they'll capture them and then after the brothers were out of the way, he would then add the princess to his collection and everyone of their friends and then... then they would capture the professor for the last portrait to show him how it feels to become a mere painting to be put on display and to be humiliated by what he has been hunting for years!

When the Boo finished the letter, he had the Boo send the letter to Mario and Luigi's mailbox and all they had to now... was wait...

* * *

The Boo that was to deliver the bait letter to the home of the Mario Brothers sneaked through Toad Town, invisible.

Ah...there was the post office! Would be too much of a give-away if the Boo delivered the notice, so why not make it come from an unknowing a?

Floating through the wall, the spirit remained unseen and stopped, gawking at the scene of the postmaster shouting at a Paratroopa with a mail satchel.

"THAT IS IT PARAKARRY! THIS IS THE VERY LAST TIME YOU SCREWED UP ANOTHER DELIVERY! YOU'RE FIIIIIIRRRREEEED!" The Toad Town Postmaster yelled at the shaking paratroopa.

"B- But..." Parakarry attempted to speak, but was then interrupted by his boss.

"No! I don't want to hear your pathetic excuses, I want you to pack up and get out of my office and out of my mail service! You're clumsy and often loses the letters you're supposed to deliver, and you're slow at delivering mail, and all of it put together has caused you to loose pieces of undelivered mail scattered across the entire Mushroom Kingdom! So you're out of here! And before you even say that "I'm the ONLY mail carrier who can make far-away deliveries." line...well, let me show you your official replacement... Follow me."

The postmaster and Parakarry went to the mailing room and Parakarry was confused as there was no other mail carriers around in the room and then saw a only a door in the wall. The postmaster then turned to Parkarry and said, "I can't say that I blame for your confusion, Paracarry, but just watch this..." the Postmaster then picked up a card that had a picture of Princess Daisy and then picked up some mail for her and then swiped the card in a card scanner near the door and Parakarry saw a light glow above the door and then the postmaster opened the door and much to Parakarry's shock and amazement, saw Princess Daisy's mail box just on the other side of the door and the postmaster simply placed the mail in the mailbox and closed the door.

"You see Parakarry, this door is magical as all it needs is a simple swipe of a card with the address and presto! Simply place the mail in the mailbox! So as you can see, ANYONE can and WILL do your job better than you! Now then, I want you and your things gone by closing time or I will have you arrested... Good day." And with that, the postmaster left his EX-employee alone with the door.

Angry at this stupid door, Parakarry suddenly attacked the door's controls and with a huff, the flying koopa turned and left, leaving the Boo alone as it became visible again.

"Instant mail, huh? That'll make this easy!" The ghost grinned, then swiped a picture of Luigi before opening the door and stuffed the fake letter in, unaware that the door suddenly locked on someone's home...someone who did NOT live in the mushroom kingdom...

Hearing the door go off, the postmaster entered, the Boo going invisible just in time to avoid him, and frowned.

Seeing the door active, the postmaster frowned and checked the controls. "Huh? Oh, just great...the door's control station is messed up! Went to the wrong address...that fink Parakarry, no doubt...now, I need to get the recall system running.." the postmaster grumbled furiously.

"Oh no..." the Boo said, going as pale as an already invisible ghost could.

Wrong address?! The king was NOT going to like this!

* * *

"What do you mean the Mario brothers didn't get it?!" King Boo raged.

"A ghost couldn't deliver it without giving it away that it was a trap, so it had to be sent by Toad Town post, but the mail screwed up, your frightfulness! The mansion notice went to someone else!" The Boo coward.

"SOMEONE ELSE?! WHO?!"

* * *

Naruto yawned as he got home to his apartment from his first ever solo mission, the mission itself was nothing too big, as all he had to do was clear out a bandit camp and with the use of the shadow clone jutsu, it was all a piece of cake.

As he entered the place he lived in, the fifteen-year-old flicked the light switch, only for nothing to happen. Doing it a few more times, he frowned as he remembered something.

"Oh great...landlord quadruples my rent yesterday and shortens the rent payment deadline to today, then shuts off my heat, water, and electricity...man, why do I have to pay for the entire place when I'm the only resident?" grumbled the whiskered blond.

He REALLY needed his own place...

Opening the blinds to let sunlight it, the teen frowned, seeing an envelope on the floor. Probably his eviction notice...

Picking it up, opening it up, and finding a notice inside like he figured, he blinked. Huh? He won? Won what? He hadn't entered any thing...

Looking over the notice, he felt his eyes widen. Was this a joke?! He needed to figure this out. Good thing his friends were smart.

Exiting the apartment and going through Konoha, Naruto soon found all of his friends at the Yakiniku Q, the village's Gyū-Kaku-style yakiniku restaurant (should have been Ichiraku Raman in Naruto's opinion).

"Hey guys! You're never going to believe this!" he placed the winner's notice on the table and Shikamaru, who muttered something about "Troublesome whiskered blondes", picked up the notice and soon found that he was now crowded by his friends as they wanted to see what Naruto was so hyper about and as they all read the paper, each of their eyes began to widen as the what they were reading began to settle in.

They all turned to Naruto and Shikamaru only had this to say, "Troublesome..."

"What the?! YOU won a mansion?!" Sakura gawked.

"Party at Naruto's new place!" Kiba cheered.

"That's just it...I DIDN'T enter any contests!" Naruto complained.

After Naruto said that, a strange door suddenly appeared behind them with a white glowing light.

Everyone stared, then gave Naruto an expectant look.

"What?! Why do I have to check it?!" he said.

Sakura grabbed him by the collar and threw him at it with a crash.

"Ooowww! What'd you do that for!?"

"Just open it!" The medic demanded.

With a sigh, Naruto went to the door he opened it and saw that the door lead to...nothing. Just darkness. Shrugging, Naruto was about to close the door when suddenly a powerful, vacuum like wind began to suck up all of his friends one by one and Naruto tried to grab them to save them but he was too late as Hinata was the last one to get sucked in and not wanting to leave his friends in trouble, Naruto then jumped into the door with the door closing itself and suddenly vanished as if it was never there...

* * *

Waking up, Naruto groaned, "Ughhh...ok...what was that?" He found himself thrown laying in the middle of a dirt road just as he heard the door close itself behind him. Naruto picked his head up and turned around, saw a dead tree with the door on it, but it had no handle, so it looked like he couldn't go back the way he came.

Then his eyes widened as the memory struck him.

Sakura, Sai...Shikamaru, Ino, Choji...Neji, Tenten, Lee...Kiba, Akamaru, Shino, Hinata...they'd all been pulled into the door with him!

Naruto wouldn't go back... not without ALL of his friends! Bolting to his feet, he looked around the dead, night-enshrouded forest, but saw no sign of his friends.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto turned to follow the trail of the dark forest, figuring if there was no way back, he could only move forward if he wanted to find everyone. Listing to the crows cawing as he walked he didn't notice two crows were watching over him, one crow looked angered while it's companion looked sad for the wandering Uzumaki.

Naruto then saw where the trail ended, and to say that he was surprised would be like saying that Jirayra was in love with Tsunade's breast was an understatement.

A house...a huge one! Looking up at it, the whiskered boy saw a big, creepy mansion in the heart of the dark forest. It looked like it has three floors from the sheer size alone and Naruto kept getting a creepy vibe from the two angry eye shaped windows as if the house was angry about something.

Then Naruto saw the gate suddenly open for him, as if in welcome...as if he were expected...Wait...was this the mansion from the notice?! His jaw dropped. The so-called "mansion" being a run-down place was shocking. And it looked more like a haunted house!

It was an unpleasant surprise to be sure...But then, Naruto wasn't afraid of surprises, hell, he wasn't really afraid of anything really – that is, if you didn't count his phobia of ghosts (What? Years of growing up alone in a small and old apartment, as well as a lack of parental love and/or protection from such 'terrors' had done well to turn what was a childish fear into a very paralyzing phobia. Was it embarrassing? Yes. Did Naruto really care? No. He was brown-pants-required afraid of ghosts, and while he had accepted it, it still didn't change the fact that he couldn't punch a ghost square in the face.)

With a sigh, he figured he might as well check for his friends in there. A run-down building was better than wandering around these creepy woods. And if his friends were as lost as he was, they'd at least come to the same conclusion.

Naruto looked around the room looking over everything, so he wouldn't miss any signs if the rest of his friends were here, the thundering sky would occasionally light up the room as he walked around. Checking all the doors, Naruto frowned.

Locked. Each and every one of them.

"Well...that settles that...I'm the only one here..." the orange and black wearing young man sighed. Then he heard something and froze as he saw a strange, orange-colored cloud, it also seemed to have a key inside of it.

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the key float around the room before the orange cloud seemed to fly through the wall leading towards a room on the second floor, but the key fell out of the cloud and landed right into the middle of the floor at Naruto's feet.

 _'Hope it wasn't a g-ghost...'_ Naruto thought with a small shudder. It was one thing for this place just to look spooky...but to actually be HAUNTED...!

Out of a need to distance himself from that thought alone, he turned his attention to the key and picked it up.

Hmm...

Checking to see which lock the key fit the door of, the Uzumaki made his way through the Foyer back up to the parlor. Maybe he could actually get to the other rooms, now. Making his way to the second floor, the blond tried the key and was rewarded when the central door of the second floor opened and he entered the room.

However, seconds later, a loud screech made from an orange colored ghost caused Naruto to scream in absolute horror as he fell on to his butt as he tried to back away nearly froze on the spot at the sight of it.

 _'G-Ghost!'_

The strange spirit grinned hugely, drawing ever nearer to him. Ghosts! Why, oh why, did it have to be ghosts! They were Just. So. Creepy!

"Geh!" Naruto made a squelching sound as the spook drifted even closer to him, floating impossibly just above the ground, as if it weighed little or next to nothing. His usual self-confidence abandoned him in the wake of what he'd seen. Then everything went black...

Seeing the reaction from the boy, the ghost hooted with delight until it was caught in what seemed to be a gust of wind and started trying to fight against it, the gust lead to an elderly old man who had...a vacuum cleaner on his back of all things!? Either way it looked like it was working as the ghost attempted to escape the suction, dragging the old man on the floor then before the old man knew it, the ghost then turned around and sucker punched the old man, knocking him onto his rear.

The ghost then laughed at the old man's pain in triumph before disappearing from sight.

"Ouch... Ooof... I sure take a lot of knocks in this line of work." The old man stood up dusting himself off, "I'm getting too old for this ghost-catching tomfollery."

Then the old man turned to Naruto, "Anyway, nice to meet you. I'm Professor...Oh...that's not pleasant..."

The boy had fainted, turned pale as a sheet, his eyes were bulging in his head, he was sweating, crying, and foaming at the mouth all at once. Not to mention his pants reeked from the back and he was slumped in a puddle of his own urien.

The old man sighed. Oh boy...

* * *

The first thing Naruto registered was the sound of a washing machine...odd. Then when something hit his face his eyes opened and he went red.

Who had taken his pants?!

Those were the object tossed on his head.

"Ahh...Good to see that you are awake my dear boy, I was afraid I might've lost you there. Welcome to the lab." a voice said with a chuckle.

Pulling his pants off his head and slipping them back onto his lower body, Naruto looked to see an old man with a round shaped head, a small button nose and was wearing glasses that prevented Naruto from seeing his actual eyes. The old man had a friendly open mouth smile that showed his single tooth, with a large strand of white hair on top of his bald head. He also wore a lab coat and wore black pants with brown shoes.

Looking at him made Naruto think of an onion.

"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm Professor E. Gadd, but you can just call me Gadd for short. Hahaha. Glad to see you're up. Ghost gave you a fright, eh?"

Naruto paled. That was right...the ghost! He'd lost it when he saw the ghost!

"What's a young feller like you doing around here, anyhoo?" The old man asked, breaking Naruto from his thoughts of the ghost.

"Oh...well, you see, Old Man Gadd, may name's Naruto Uzumaki, and I don't know how or why, but I won this mansion in some contest I didn't even enter and apparently my friends and me were all brought here..." Naruto said, then started telling the professor all about what happened.

Once Naruto finished, the old man then began to think to himself, "My dear boy, I believe I've seen all of your friends, and they are inside that mansion. And apparently this "Contest" that you won that mansion in was all a trap; for that mansion appeared shortly after about a week ago and after my gallery has been raided..."

"Gallery?" Naruto wondered.

Gadd nodded, "My gallery of ghost portraits..." he said, missing Naruto paling again. "Seems we need to deal with the ghosts. Luckily, I invented just the thing: a special backpack vacuum cleaner engineered to catch ghosts. It's the only way to foil 'em! This is the only thing they fear! I call it the Poltergust 3000! But I'm getting too old for this ghost-catching tomfoolery...good thing you're here, eh?"

"M-m-ME?!" Naruto sputtered, looking at the professor as if he'd utterly lost his mind.

"Well, youngster...seems you have a choice here, but seems you need to make up your mind..."

"I have! I'm outta here!" The blond yelped, then bolted in the direction of the door.

"Well...what scares you more: ghosts, or letting something happen to your friends?"

The words froze Naruto in place. What scared him more?

Naruto bit his lip, he hated ghosts, but if anything happened to his friends, his precious people, all because he ran... Naruto winced as he realized he'd be alone again...only this time, he'd deserve it, the price on his cowardice. The people he cared about were his life, protecting them was his purpose. If he ran and abandoned them...

With a sigh, he turned back to Professor E Gadd, his body trembling all over, but his gaze was firm.

"Gadd, for the record, I'm scared shitless...but gemmie that ghost vacuum!"


	2. Chapter 2

**AUTHOR NOTE: THANKS EVERYONE! Thanks to all of your helping me, that plagiarist on wattpad, HunterWater0...**

 **THEIR PROFILE IS GONE!**

* * *

The Poltergust 3000 that the professor had made was a red backpack-like device equipped with a vacuum, a nozzle, and a flashlight.

Naruto looked at it with more than a bit of skepticism. THIS was made to hunt down and capture ghosts? He was expected to rescue his friends from the incorporeal with this this strapped to his back?

With a sigh, the blonde slung it over his back. Heavy, but not by much...felt like a backpack with nothing but dictionaries in it, actually.

"I feel kinda ridiculous..." he admitted.

"Try it out, my boy." The professor encouraged.

Seeing a small panel on the nozzle with a switch on it along with a button, Naruto flicked it before pressing the button down. As he did, the Poltergust blew a strong stream of air from it until he took his finger off the button. Oh, so that switch was for the direction of if it was to suck in or blow out objects. Ok...now he was getting somewhere. Flicking the switch to suck things in, the devise

Strong suction...and since he doubted the ghosts would willing go along with this, if he was going to have to struggle with sucking ghosts like wearing out a catch while fishing, he couldn't take his hands off the nozzle, which meant he couldn't cast jutsu while using it on ghosts.

Crap...a few dozen shadow clones sucking away at a ghost would make this so much easier!

With a sigh at that option being out of reach when he was sucking spooks into it, he looked at Gadd, "So...what's next?" he asked, feeling he wasn't going to like this.

"Dealing with ghosts, of course; my boy." The old man said while missing as Naruto went pale. Taking out a heart monitor, Gadd attached it to

"What's this?"

"Biological harness. Heart rate, vitals...the works. Never can tell what can happen, after all. Especially with the supernatural and paranormal."

Gadd took Naruto into a different room that looked like it was meant for training, Naruto shot the professor a confused look and all Gadd said to the blond Uzumaki was, "I'll explain everything once you enter the room and we get started."

Having no other choice but to take the professor's word for it, Naruto then entered the room and awaited for instructions.

Still, he felt himself shaking. Even though Naruto fully knew why he was doing this training, deep down inside, he was still terrified of ghosts, he had this fear for years, and it wasn't going to leave him anytime soon, and it wasn't something he could just get over at the drop of a hat...

"Now Naruto, I want you to suck up all of the ghosts in this room that I will be sending at you, by using both your flashlight and the Poltergust 3000 as a team. Now I'm going to turn off the lights, the ghosts are drawn to the darkness, so be on guard at all times, my boy."

Before Naruto could even attempt to argue, the lights in the room went out and before he knew it, two golden ghosts suddenly made themselves known by yelling and causing Naruto to freeze in fright as he then quickly shined his flashlight at where the ghosts were but there was nothing there.

Gadd sighed. This was going to be harder than he thought...

Gadd was proven right as he then saw Naruto just freeze in place and stood stiff as a statue as he saw the ghosts coming towards him, Gadd tried to snap the blond Uzumaki out of his horrorfied trance but he saw the ghosts where punching at the boy like a punching bag and to make matters worse, Gadd saw Naruto's health was getting dangerously low, with no other choice turned the lights back on in the room making all of the ghosts scream as the fled from the lit room.

ran into the room in worry for Naruto, and it wasn't until the old man touched his shoulder that the Uzumaki did something completely out of his character... he broke down in tears as he hugged the old man as if he would disappear. All he could do was sadly pat the crying Uzumaki's back as he tried to think about what to do now...

Naruto felt utterly pathetic. He'd thought he resolved himself. But the second he was faced with his old fear, he fell apart like a house of cards! Worse still, All he could do was weep at his own weakness!

It was shameful. He'd never caved in like this before with anything else!

Why was he so afraid?!

After slapping Naruto to finally calm down pulled out some seat and both of them sat down facing eachother, "I'm sorry I had to do that to you Naruto, but you were going hysterical. Now, I know how this is VERY hard for you, but if your going to save your friends, you first must save yourself from this fear of ghosts.", said while Naruto drying his tears nodded as he understood the situation.

then continued, "Now, let's hold off the Poltergust training and let's talk about this fear of yours. Tell me, when did this overpowering fear of ghosts begin, Take your time and search your memory."

Naruto then closed his eyes and tried to remember when his fear of ghosts actually begin as he searched and searched through his memories to his past. Oh boy...

It all began, Naruto supposed, where it always did: the attack of the Kyūbi on Konoha when Naruto was born.

The Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, teme that he was, wanted Naruto to be treated like a hero, but never said anything about keeping the fox a secret for the safety of the child.

Sarutobi (or someone the overly-trusting moron had as part of his inner circle) had spilled the secret, with the relic of a leader hoping that the ninja and civilians would see his point of view...they didn't. They called for his death immediately; however, Sarutobi turned it around and said it was a double S-ranked secret and whoever proclaimed it would be killed on the spot. Too bad, Sarutobi lacked the balls to actually go through with his threat because Naruto's life was shot to hell right after that.

Naruto suffered continuously, he was nearly killed, chased out of stores, given rotten food tripled the price, having to live on the streets and eat out of garbage until they refused to let him eat even that. He had to sneak around in the dead of night to eat, however, the Hokage gave him an apartment.

The place was constantly vandalized; covered in all sorts of graffiti, trash and bodily fluids and no matter how many times he cleaned it, some pissed off villagers would redo the damage thrice-fold and the civilians used it as a place to beat the shit out of him regularly.

So he stopped trying.

With that, he noticed the villagers stopped desecrating his building, bored with an easy target that apparently didn't even care about its own home. In their own twisted logic, the villagers figured it just made Naruto more of a demon, not caring about his home.

From there, a mask was created.

He ran around the village, pulling pranks galore, stupid smile, obliviousness, and suddenly they left him alone. Sure there were the few stragglers who felt they had to prove something, but that was easily taken care of with a _henge_ that showed false injuries.

When he went to the Hokage about it, the old man had only said he had taken care of it. And indeed, Naruto had twice as many ANBU guards... who did nothing when he was hurt, when he was chased or beaten.

He stopped _talking_ to the old man. He filled their conversations with mundane talks of pranks and ramen, neatly side-stepping intrusive questions about his personal life.

He had no friends, but that was okay. Friends only betrayed you in the end.

He had no family because according to the Matron in the orphanage, "Demons like you only have demons as parents. Thank God they're dead."

The young boy actually wanted to die at one point, but the Hokage saved him, thinking that it would lead to a bond, however, Naruto hated the old man, which Sarutobi thought of the nickname as childhood endearment, instead of malice. Every time Naruto talked to the old man about why the people hated him, he went off to give a speech about how he needed to forgive and forget.

But, the young Uzumaki never forgot, he never forgot the faces of the people who nearly killed him, tortured him, chased him out, he never forgot. He would keep remembering until he had the chance to grow stronger. He wasn't going to do it for them. He was going to do it for himself and to never be placed under their control.

For all Naruto knew...was ever allowed to learn about his own family (which was nothing), he might as well have been a test tube child, a botched attempt to genetically recreate the Yondaime Hokage after his death...guy was certainly beloved enough for people to go as far as grave-robbing and making imitations like that..."Project Ever-Light" Naruto called it, after all, the Yondaime's nickname was the "Kiiroi Senkō"...the "Yellow Flash", because his use of the Hiraishin no Jutsu causing him to appear and disappear in flashes of yellow light when he used it...and with a line of successive clones to make the man look seemingly immortal, a light that would never fade, it seemed to fit.

Depressing thing was, thinking of himself in that way had to qualify as Naruto's definition as a "happy thought" when he was growing up. If he was just a failed experiment and faulty clone produced by an experiment that was scrapped after the ones who pulled the strings saw how disappointing the results of the prototype were, that meant he hadn't been abandoned at birth for being a "hellspawn" as the people around him had always told him as an explanation as to why he was an orphan.

Not having any parents, other family, or otherwise guardian around when growing up had forced him to raise himself and gotten an over-developed sense of self-reliance in everything since day one because of that. And with that, he had to grow up pretty fast. Because of that, Naruto was a very strong man young with equally strong passions. He loved and hated with equal fervor and commitment. If you were precious to him, there was nothing he would not do for you. Likewise, if you were his enemy, he would never stop until he destroyed you.

What hardly anyone cared to learn, however, was that Naruto's personality was anything but the happy, carefree guy he always made people think he was on the inside.

Inside, Naruto was dark, depressed, and longing for anyone, anyone at all, to show him any small amount of human kindness. The part of his personality that contained hate was surprising small, and a large part of what made him who he was as a person was the urge to prove himself. His capacity for kindness and love was gigantic, and his patience was surprisingly large.

However, Uzumaki Naruto didn't consider himself to be a human.

After having been referred to as a "demon" or a "monster" by the villagers of Konohagakure since he was cognizant enough to understand. It should be no surprise to anyone that he would eventually believe himself to be something other than human. No matter how much the very notion of him being anything other than being human has been denied by the Sandaime Hokage. The damage had already been done, however, and Naruto himself had come to realize that they may be right. One man's opinion, even the Hokage's, couldn't outweigh the thoughts of the many.

Well, there was one thing the blond would agree with in the old man's protests of his personal views of his humanity.

He didn't believe he was a "demon", as the civilians had come to claim.

No true demon would ever take the amount of animosity or disrespect lying down, and not retaliate. Why the villagers didn't seem to realize that was beyond him, but it forced him to believe that humans (besides a certain few) were really stupid.

That or they didn't possess any sense of self-preservation whatsoever.

The villagers of Konohagakure in particular, were perfect examples of the lack of preservation. Otherwise they would watch their tones around the so-called "demon", which could have killed them outright at the amount of disrespect they showed him on a daily basis.

Seriously, was common sense and logic that scarce? The village had been standing for what? Twelve, thirteen years or so after the fox attack? If he really were the demon everyone in this place that had less than half a brain thought Naruto was...why hadn't he reduced this place to a crater full of blood-drenched rubble after over ten years?

But not only did the people older than Naruto despise him, but that they caused their kids' entire generation to hate Naruto just because their parents did-and for what? Saving the village and the lives of everyone in it just by being born in the first place?! Naruto never asked to carry the demon, yet he was shunned and hated for what he was by the villagers for stopping the Kyuubi. If it weren't for the kid, none of them would be here. This village seemed to forget that the only reason they were alive was because of Naruto. And people claimed that he was a demon in human form...HAH! If he was the Kyuubi, he would have killed them all by now!

The fact that they were still alive and the village was still standing were proof of Naruto's humanity, yet the people around him were too stupid to figure that out!

"...Well...if I had to sum it up, I was always seen as a bad omen, so nobody was there for me, much less to help me get out of the fear of ghosts...fact that so many people blamed me for things that weren't my fault and said people that apparently died because of me couldn't rest in peace didn't help things...was worried about the grudges of the dead growing up..." The Uzumaki sighed.

The professor blinked, then nodded. He understood now. That was pretty bad, especially in the situation Naruto and his friends were now in. No small hindrance in dealing with the ghosts. Not easy to fix, either...not to mention since ghosts weren't fans of the light, Naruto had, at most, twelve hours to save his friends of the entire ghost-generated mansion could vanish with his friends inside it. So they needed a quick fix to Naruto's

"So what can I do, Professor? You're a smart guy. Need some help here...I **want** to help my friends, but if I get that terrified, I can't do a thing..." Naruto sighed, frustration building in his tone.

After hearing Naruto's explanation of how he became afraid of ghosts, he began to think of what could be done about it...then he snapped his fingers as an idea came to him. "I may have a solution for your problem!" Gadd said as he rushed to his room as he looked for something and soon came back out with a gold coin attached to a string, "Hypnosis!"

Naruto looked confused at what Gadd was getting at, as Gadd then sat in front of the confused Uzumaki, "Let me explain: What I have in mind is that I'm going to hypnotize you into NOT fearing ghosts, this will help you save your friends."

Naruto looked at the professor, not completely convinced this would work. But if it didn't, all his friends were doomed.

Nodding as he then held the coin by the string in front of Naruto's eyes and he began to swing the coin like a pendulim, "Watch the pretty coin of gold... and you will do as you told..."

* * *

Within the seal, the Kyūbi rolled his eyes. Was this for real? A cheap knock-off of genjutsu? And professors were supposed to be _SMART!_

No way was he, Kurama Ōtsutsuki, pseudo-child of the famed Sage of Six Paths and strongest of the nine bijū, going to allow his pride to suffer that kind of blow. Being actually hypnotized by things like the Sharingan was bad enough, but a FAKE attempt at genjutsu and hypnotism? No.

Of course...while it wouldn't work, there was no harm in letting the bald runt of an ape he was stuck in merely _think_ it had worked...

Reaching out with his chakra, he sent just enough to cause a buzz in the back of his container's mind and for it to be noticed before cutting off the flow.

 **"You owe me for this, brat...must be going soft..."** the beast growled, still...as the fox settled in for a nap, he liked to think his father would have approved of what the fox had just done.

* * *

"When I snap my fingers, you will feel no fear of ghosts." Gadd instructed, then snapped his fingers before lowering the coin. "Feel it worked?"

"Think so...thanks professor." Naruto said, standing up and putting the Poltergust 3000 back on. "Only one way to be sure, though..."

The man nodded and Naruto went back into the training room. Gadd gave Naruto a look of worry until he saw Naruto give him a large, fox-like smile as he closed the door behind him.

Naruto then closed his eyes and took in a deep breath just as heard Gadd's voice from the loud speaker, "Remember Naruto, Ghosts seem to like the darkness, and they avoid the light. So if you hit them with a beam from your flashlight all of a sudden, you can stun em' momentarily! Then from there it's vacuuming time! When you see you're chance, press the suction button and hold it down while you are trying to pull your prey towards the poltergust, don't let them escape. Just try it and you'll see, I see you as the learn while doing than listing type, anyway. I'm going to send out eleven ghosts...so be on guard, good luck, Naruto."

The lights in the room then went out and Naruto heard a humming sound. Going towards it, he heard a familiar laugh.

In an instant, Naruto flashed his flash light at the golden ghost and then press the vacuum's button. The ghost screamed and attempted to escape from the poltergust's suction, but Naruto wouldn't give up as he pushed himself back while trying to reel in the ghost. Then after a while, the golden ghost was full sucked into the poltergust, he caught it...

Naruto felt his lip twitch. Seeing ghosts run from _him_ for a change felt pretty damn good!

After a few more trial runs to get him used to what he had to do, Naruto left the lab and made his way to the mansion again.

Standing before the specter-infested manor, he took a deep breath, "Hold on, guys...I'm coming to save you all." Naruto said, then entered the haunted mansion.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto looked at the doors as he stood in the middle of the foyer again, this time feeling more prepared for what to deal with. Now...which door to go through?

Going through lobby and up to the only door on the floor, he tried to open the door and wasn't surprised to find it locked. Naruto shook his head, amused.

As if a locked door meant much to a ninja.

With that in mind, Naruto decided to put a trick he'd invented to use. Placing a finger to the lock, he streamed chakra into it. Locating the tumblers with his energy, Naruto manipulated them using his chakra until he heard a click from it.

"Skeleton key jutsu, success." he smiled.

"...NO FAIR!" An unseen speaker raged. "NO ONE SAID YOU COULD DO THAT! YOU CHEATED!"

"No one said I couldn't!" Naruto shot back smugly to the disembodied voice (most likely a ghost), then entered the doorway with a laugh, finding a hallway. Sure, taunting a ghost wasn't all that good an idea, but between the Poltergust and Gadd's hypnosis act numbing his fear, he was feeling pretty good.

After Naruto entered the hallway, he was quick to notice the area was practically crawling with different ghosts. Naruto ducked under a group of bat ghosts that flew over him, moved around the speedy little mice ghosts scurrying by his feet and the ever annoying laughing ceiling ghosts who are more of a minor nuisance than an actual threat, including the purple ones who dropped bombs, All Naruto had to do was shine his flashlight at them and then quickly sucked them into the poltergust with no effort.

As Naruto walked through the ghost ridden hallway, smirking that he had a feeling that he was now pissing the ghosts off because of his "cheating" ways, well if they didn't kidnap his friends then he wouldn't be here, so Naruto thought it served those ghosts right.

"Reap what you sow, stupid spooks." he muttered, going down the hallway. He did raise an eyebrow at the floating, unlit candelabra. He shrugged, having a feeling he'd revisit it later, then something made him stop.

"...Music?" the whiskered young man wondered, hearing it coming from a door to his left. Frowning, he made his way to where it was coming from.

"Please, be one of the others..." he sighed, finding the door where the sound originated. A quick use of his "skeleton key jutsu" again, and he was in.

As Naruto entered the room, he noticed that there were several musical instruments around. There was a saxophone, a harp, a cello, three kettle drums, a xylophone, and a grand piano...but no one else in the room. Looking at each one with wonder, he moved his fingers on the strings of the harp and suddenly, to his surprise, the harp started bouncing in place and making music, seeming to play itself. Naruto listened to the harp's solo until the music stopped. But now he wondered about the other instruments and touched them all, including the piano's keys and soon enough, the whole conservatory was being filled with music and bouncing instruments. Naruto had to admit to himself as he thought the music was very catchy until he heard a female happily laughing, and then when he looked at the grand piano, Naruto's eyes widened as he saw another ghost happily playing on the keyboard.

The ghost was a female and was wearing a long maroon colored dress with long sleeves that had white frilly trims on her sleeves and the bottom of her dress. She had a dark red belt with a white buckle at her waist and a dark red bow near her neck. She also had a slight collar to the top of her dress. She had a heart shaped head and had long, pale blond hair with two long bangs pushed behind her ears. Her hair curved at the bottom of her hairstyle. She was a light sky-blue "skin tone", and had large, completely yellow eyes, along with a small nose.

After the music stopped, Naruto clapped lightly in appreciation and the female ghost turned to him and smiled, "Hello! My name is Melody, Melody Pianissima. People call me the spectral beauty of the ivory keys! What a stirring performance! I haven't been so charmed by a piece like that for ages! You must have a delicate ear for music. Would you like to listen to my piano sonata?"

Naruto nodded, seeing no harm in hearing the ghost play for him, and welcomed the chance to relax to her music with all the spectral insanity of this place he was caught up in.

Seeing him nod, Melody then turned to the keyboard, "Well, here I go." and she began to play a short, but still catchy, tune on her piano and then when she finished, Melody turned to Naruto, "By the way...that song was featured in a very famous video game, Do you know which game it came from? Either, Mario Bros., Super Mario World, or Super Mario Bros. 3?"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock, he was being tested!? Now!? But he had never even heard of those games! And what the heck were video games, anyways?! Never heard of them back at Konoha! He was screwed! Without any knowledge of the games she mentioned, Naruto had to guess and hoped he picked the right one, "Um... Super Mario World?"

Instantly, Melody grew angered at Naruto's answer and began to slam her fists against the keyboard, "No, no, NO! That's all wrong! I put my whole heart and soul into that piece, only to be insulted!? How could you, you awful boy!?"

Naruto flinched at the ghost's anger and he felt terrible. He didn't meant to insult her, but he honestly didn't expect to be asked a sudden question about a video game that he didn't know about, (for that matter, what were video games, anyway? Didn't have those in Konoha). "Melody... I'm sorry, but I don't know about any of those video games...honest."

Melody looked at Naruto with a glare and snarled, "Sorry?! You're Sorry?! Sorry isn't going to solve this...oh no...I think you need to be punished for this! Prepare yourself, little boy...because you're about to face BIG TROUBLE!"

Melody suddenly began to play a very haunting and bone chilling tune and the room began to spin very quickly and Naruto felt that everything in the room was growing until he passed out.

A little bit later, Naruto woke up, still a little dizzy from whatever Melody did to him and then he stood up and noticed something about the ground, it was white and smooth like tile, with a black mound like a hill nearby and there seemed to be a entire row of them in a straight line. Naruto didn't like this...

Then he heard Melody's laughter, only it sounded very loud to his ears. Then he looked up and his eyes widened as he saw all of the instruments from before, only they looked like they were made for giants! Then he heard a thunderous **CLANG** as the ground shook and then he saw a giant sized hand on the floor tiles and looked up, only for his blood to freeze. Naruto saw Melody...but she was as gigantic as everything else in the room! Then in an instant, Naruto realized what Melody meant when she said he was in "Big Trouble"! Melody and the room didn't grow bigger, he was shrunken and now standing on the keys of her grand piano!

Melody looked down upon Naruto, "I'm sorry it had to be this way...but you just had to insult my piece, so now from here on out...I'll be playing your funeral march!"

Naruto saw the Melody's giant fingers descend to crush him and he quickly jumped out of the way before the impact, Naruto then had to jump again and again, he soon realized that he would have to time his jumps perfectly, one wrong move and he'll soon be joining the ghosts as a permanent resident in this damned haunted palace, then Melody was about to use both of her hand to crush Naruto and before he knew it, Melody slammed her hands down quickly making sure to crush Naruto's body, only for her eyes to widen as she saw the remains of... "A log!?"

How did he...?! Oh, what did it matter? The musical specter didn't see him. Angered that her prey escaped, she looked all over the keyboard for the half-inch sized Uzumaki, what she didn't know was that Naruto was hiding behind her music sheets above the key board standing as still as he could be.

Melody searched for the rude boy who insulted her music, but she couldn't find him anywhere on the keyboard and knew that he couldn't escape from her, so where could he be? Then she looked at her music sheet or more specifically the bottom right corner and saw a small bump under the sheets and then a smirk grew on her lips.

"Ah-ha! There you are, you little...!" Melody cried, seeing her prey hiding behind her music sheets, Melody then had an idea, suddenly her yellow eyes brightened up and the sheet that Naruto was in front of suddenly kicked him back onto the piano keys.

He dodged along the keys, occasionally jumping to and from the black keys, always moving and trying to constantly pull moves she wouldn't expect, such as jumping back and forth between two keys, as Melody continued her attempts to crush Naruto with her hands as she played the piano and Naruto ran for his life dodging her hands and pressing keys.

It wasn't easy; ten fingers and who knew how long she'd been playing the piano keyboard, after all...and unlike him, she couldn't suffer from loss of stamina, after all. For all intents and purposes, she was a machine. Not a second's rest or a single wasted movement as those transparent digits pursued with the intention of ending him. He kept moving all along the keyboard with her fingers in constant chase.

As this went on, Melody was begging to listen to the music that she and her potential victim were making together and she was surprised that hearing it was helping her feel more relaxed, more calm...more happy that they were making this wonderful music and she soon abandoned the thought of killing this boy and just wanted to make beautiful music like this with him again. Spotting her partner, she saw the boy laying on one of the keys in a spread heap and breathing hard, feeling drained from running for his life. Frowning at how worn he looked and feeling guilty, she undid her curse upon him and restored him back to normal size.

As he appeared in the center of the conservatory, he backed up as quickly as his body would allow from Melody.

Seeing him so obviously terrified of her, Melody winced, guilty and unable to blame him. But then her eyes widened in utterly mindless terror at where he was trying to head.

The door.

He meant to _LEAVE!_

 _ **NO!**_

The next thing Naruto knew was something tackling him and then coiling around him like a snake. His eyes widened as he saw it was the she-ghost that had just attempted to end him! She had her arms pinning his own to his sides and her ghostly tail had snaked out of the bottom of her dress and wrapped around his legs, pinning him down in place. Instantly, Naruto struggled like a beached fish to try getting away.

"I won't let you go! I will not let you go, my sweet Maestro!"

"What?! First you want to kill me, now you want me to stay?!" Naruto yelped.

Pulling back slightly, Melody sighed. Unable to fault him his terror of her. Curse her surly disposition...! She hugged him tighter, arms wrapping around the whiskered boy's neck. Longing to show she was beyond wishing him harm.

"I admit, I lost my temper. But I worked on that piece I played for you for over a hundred years! Tell me it wouldn't be upsetting for you to spend every second of a century working on something, only for it to go unrecognized like that."

Naruto blinked, then his struggles stopped and he sighed. Ok...he'd give her that. He hated when his efforts were passed over no matter what he did, and she'd been playing and practicing nonstop for over one hundred years of dedication. No wonder she was so upset. ANYONE would be!

"Ok...I get that, but why do you want me to stay, then?" he asked as the specter nuzzled the tip of her nose against his.

"Well...the proof that I was right about you having a delicate ear for music: our song." Melody sighed dreamily, batting her eyes at him.

Naruto stared, confused, "'Our song'?" he repeated.

The spirit nodded happily, "You see, when you were getting chased around my keyboard by my fingers, the song that got played when my fingers landed on the keys you were on as you dodged...it inadvertently made a song that my music sheets copied down the notes to as it was played. The song... _our song_...it was beautiful."

She pulled back a bit again and lovingly caressed his cheeks with the gentleness of a butterfly's wings, "Music is the voice of my soul. That was and always will be my truth, alive or dead. Our song made it clear to me through its beauty: You're my soulmate!"

As the last trio of words left her mouth, everything seemed to stop and grow heavy, like the echoing ring of an ancient grandfather clock's sudden chime in a long-forgotten room when even the clock itself had forgotten it could produce a sound. The words seemed to carry a type of heavy finality to them that made it sound suspiciously like a vow, a promise. An oath.

A bond.

And with that, the musician grabbed his face as she roughly brought her mouth down onto his. Her spectral tongue entered his mouth and she savagely used it. Her kiss was passionate and desperate, she wanted to taste him, wanted to suck him in and consume him...Naruto was hers. No one else could have him.

NO ONE!

As Melody kissed Naruto, his eyes widened and he went stiff at attention, he was very confused at what to do in this situation, _'What is she doing? Wasn't she just trying to kill me a few seconds ago? Why am I feeling good from her doing this? Is this what a kiss is supposed to be like? It feels... good.'_

When she pulled back, she rested her head on his shoulder with a blissful sigh. But as she did so, she suddenly took note of the pack he had with him.

One that looked unpleasantly familiar...

The POLTERGUST?!

Eyes wide, Melody let out a shriek. "Wha...wha...what are you doing with THAT?!" she cried, all but flinging him away in an attempt to distance herself from the accursed device.

"Huh?" Naruto was beyond confused now. What was with this ghost and her mood swings? Then he recalled the invention he had on his back...and more importantly, it's function. "Oh...the Poltergust?"

Frightfully, the ghost nodded. Was everything a trick then?! Was he going to suck her up and take her to have...just who knew what done to her?! It was horrible! Was she that much of a fool?!

Naruto sighed, holstering the hose and nozzle end. "Please just calm down...I don't want to use this on you if it can be helped. Fact is, I only have this as a means to an end. You see Melody, my friends and I were tricked into coming to this mansion. Was a trap. Got this gizmo to help stop the ghosts who set me and my friends up...I just want to rescue the ones who matter to me...they're all I've really got..."

Melody stared at him. Then she sniffed, forgetting her fear of the backpack-like vacuum he bore, "That's..." she said, suddenly latching onto him again. "...so noble!"

"I was asked something important: what scares me more. Admit I'm not the best with ghosts...sorry!" Naruto started to explain, only to flinch and apologize as Melody recoiled with a wince.

"Sorry, Melody...mean in general, just don't know how to deal with them. Thing is, when I'm facing someone or something, if it can bleed, feel pain, die, feel fear, whatever. If it has some kind of a weakness I'm not afraid of it. But, and no offense, with ghosts, you can't hit them, you can't touch them, they can turn invisible, go through solid objects, and they can possess you...things like that. So because of stuff like that, it's like I said, don't know how to deal with them...that's why they scare me. But I'm more afraid of loosing those who matter to me. You don't seem to have done anything with my friends, so you're just a bystander in all this...I don't have a reason to vacuum you away in that case. "

The female specter's eyes widened in realization, her dread fading away at his words and leaving nothing but sweet relief in place of it, "Oh! I see...you were saying?" Melody smiled, her soulmate was easily very emotionally effusive, very easily and deeply in touch with the feelings within his heart, for an artiest of any form, that was wonderful.

Suddenly Naruto's pocket vibrated and he pulled a small device he didn't recognize, only for the screen on it to light up and soon Gadd's voice came through, "Naruto! Naruto, do you read me!? Naruto! Please respond! I need you to quickly get back to the lab, I think I found one of your missing friends! Please hurry!"

Naruto's eyes widened as he heard the professor's message and soon he unknowingly just grabbed Melody's hand and quickly ran back to the entrance and ran as fast as his legs could go until he and the piano playing female ghost were now outside of the mansion and heading towards the tiny shack in the front yard.

* * *

"Ah, Naruto, my boy. You're here. I noticed some unusual spike in ghost activity...seems something you did got the ghosts upset."

"Never mind that, professor! You said in your message about my friends!" The young ninja snapped with urgency.

"Ah yes...as it turns out, one of your friends...oh...oh my..." the tiny professor said, then took off and started cleaning his glasses.

"What?!" Naruto demanded.

"Um...Naruto...you _do_ know there's a..."

Naruto blinked, then feeling his hand be squeezed, he turned his attention to the female phantom, getting an affectionate smile from her in return. "Oh..." turning back to Gadd, Naruto nodded, "It's ok. Professor, this is Melody. Melody, this is Gadd."

"...We've met..." Melody said tightly. Of course she knew Gadd already. The onion-looking egghead had sucked her up and put her through that ghastly conveyor belt machine that had drenched, zapped, and pounded her before stuffing her into a frame for an art gallery. Needless to say, she was less than happy to be around the inventor again.

"Welp...guess you caught a ghost that was released from my art gallery, Naruto. Good job, my boy! Now to put it back in the portrait it came from, and..."

At that, Melody let out a shriek, cutting off whatever else Gadd might have said and hiding behind Naruto, "NO! Please! Not the painting! ANYTHING but the painting again! Have mercy! Please don't send me back into that portrait, I'm begging you! I finally found my soulmate and now you want to tear us apart! How could you be so cruel! How can you just not care for how we ghosts feel about being stuffed into paintings? If our roles where reversed, tell me, would you like the idea of being stuffed into a portrait against your will!? Please! If you let me stay out of the portrait...I'll...I'll play you a song of your choice on my piano, just for you! And...and as a bonus, I'll even help Naruto catch all of the others and save his friends! Just please don't seal me away... please... I don't want to be alone again...!" Melody said as she began to cry at the thought of being sealed away and alone, her tears like liquid trails of mercury.

At that, Naruto frowned, recalling his own isolated agony growing up in Konoha by himself. He HATED being alone...

As that crossed his mind, it made him think how it must be from Melody's perspective. If he was stuffed into that thing, for...who knew just how long a time...what must it be like? To always be stared at, never moving, permanently frozen in time... and how dull it must be? Naruto began to shiver with discomfort at the very thought. If he didn't already like the sound of that, then to these ghosts, it must be worse than hell. Naruto decided maybe there could be a better way for this instead of trapping the portrait ghosts inside paintings.

"Professor, can't we at least give the ghosts like Melody a chance to earn their freedom from the portraits first?" Naruto asked, surprising both the professor and Melody.

Gadd sighed. "I understand what you're saying and why, Naruto my boy, and your heart's in the right place. But the Boos rigged things. You see, the boos only come out in the mansion's rooms when the lights are on, and the lights can only come on when the other non-Boo ghosts have been captured."

"But that's the fault of these Boos, not the rest of the ghosts! Why punish all of them for what only some of them did?" Naruto protested. "Besides, as long as the non-Boo ghosts are caught and taken out of the mansion, why do they need to be made into paintings again?"

"To empty the Poltergust. Even it has a space limit for how much ectoplasm it can contain at a time."

"But what if we just let the ghost out if they don't cause trouble after? Why trap them if they aren't going to give a reason to?" Naruto argued, then sighed and turned to the other one in the lab with them before Gadd could answer. "Melody, I want to make you a deal... and before you agree to it I want you to hear ALL of it okay?"

Melody noticed the seriousness in Naruto's voice and nodded.

Naruto then took a deep breath, "Alright, here's the deal Melody: You can stay and help me try to rescue my friends, however... I'll also be watching over you during this whole thing. If I see you trying to do any funny business, then it's straight into the Poltergust and right BACK into the painting. Basically, I want you on your best behavior and your full cooperation to help me save my friends, Melody, and I want to know if I can fully trust you. So, do we have a deal?"

Melody looked at Naruto and saw that he was telling the truth about wanting her help to save his friends and that he was also serious about his threat. Still...she knew what happened had to depend on her and her actions. Naruto was making it so she had a choice. A way to show she didn't deserve to be crammed back into a painting all based off her. The fact that she was being given a chance made her dry her tears and smile.

"I promise on my entire being that I will help you save your friends Naruto!" Melody said, hugging him close. She shook all over...even with the stakes being what they were, he still wanted to be fair to her and the other portrait ghost! Naruto...her soulmate...he was wonderful! "I won't let you down or make you regret this! I promise, my soulmate!"


	4. Chapter 4

**HAPPY HALLOWEEN!**

 **BIG thanks to MichaelTheFox** **for helping with this chapter! Seriously, guy's an awesome Co-author!**

* * *

As the unlikely duo left Gadd's lab, Naruto turned to his companion."Melody?"

"Yes, my Soulmate?"

Naruto sighed, "...Are you...ok with this? Helping me as far as the other ghosts, I mean..."

At that, Melody hugged him again, touched he was concerned with how she felt. "Well...like it or not, I will. I promised, after all. Besides..." she suddenly scowled as she pulled away, "it's really all the fault of the damn Boos...as usual!"

"As usual?" Naruto repeated, confused.

"Boos are all about mayhem. If they can cause trouble, they will, no questions asked. Should have figured they were involved in you and your friends' plight...both the living and the dead, everyone's sick and tired of them giving ghosts in general a bad name." Melody snarled. "Think about it: to save your friends, you have to capture all the Boos. But the Boos only come out in the mansion's rooms when the lights are on, and the lights can only come on when the other non-Boo ghosts have been captured."

"...Boos rigged it so I have to make enemies of whatever other good ghosts are in there for the sake of saving my friends..." the Uzumaki cringed.

She nodded, feeling her mood lighten by a tenth out of a hundred at that. It felt good knowing Naruto saw her as a "good ghost", and from his comment, he wanted to see her fellow portrait ghosts the same way. On the other, she was far too outraged at the Boos for all of this.

"Melody...could you explain that to the other ghosts that are...well...from Gadd's..." he tried finding a way to put what he wanted to say that wouldn't upset her.

"I'll explain things to the other portrait ghosts, my Soulmate. Don't worry...they can't stand the Boos either, so the fact the Boos made it so you had to turn to Gadd for help is bound to get them upset." She sighed, "You want to be fair to us, though. So the fact you do but had to turn to that damned lab coat clad onion means more trouble for the Boos when the others find out. We all HATE Gadd for what he did to us!"

As they made their way up the steps to the mansion, Naruto looked at her, "I get the feeling that you and the others actually want that to happen...give you all an excuse to kick some Boo butt..."

Melody laughed, wrapping her spectral body around his torso like a python, "Be lying if I said otherwise. Like I said, we're all sick and tired of them giving ghosts in general a bad name."

Naruto nodded. The saying about how bad apples spoil the bunch passing through his mind. As they got to the front door, however... "Uh...Melody? Kinda need the use of my arms..."

The ghost, who was resting her head on his shoulder, pouted at him. She liked using her lack of physical form limiting her so she was wrapped around the whiskered teen like this! Then her arm stretched out and she opened it herself. "I'm comfy like this." She explained as she nuzzled her cheek against his.

Naruto sighed and shook his head haplessly. "Ok, but I will need my arms back when I need to unlock a door. Sorry, Melody..."

"...Fine." she huffed, pouting.

Going up to bottom door in the center of the foyer, Naruto lightly cleared his throat and gave Melody a look. Grumbling, she reluctantly unwound herself from him and tsked, crossing her arms and looking away, very much annoyed.

"I said sorry..." Naruto said sheepishly, then put his finger to the keyhole and injected his chakra. But as he tried to apply his "key" again, this time was different. As he poured energy into the lock, it seemed to spit it back out as some kind of black variant of it. Naruto screamed, jerked, thrashed and twitched uncontrollably as he was suddenly electrocuted stupid. The voltage was so high, it was even possible to see the young man's skeleton under his skin and muscle while Naruto's hair turned ashen white, while his skin turned a sickly dull gray color with several black vein-like markings covering his body that looked like it were cracking, and his eyes were now glowing with a eerie, bright, neon-green that contrasted the black energy pouring over and through him.

Finally, with a bang like a shot from a cannon, he was flung away from the door. Impacting the wall behind him and slumped down in a heap at the bottom of it. Utterly unmoving.

"HAH! Take _**THAT**_ , you cheat!" A ghost's voice (more than likely a Boo) cackled.

"NARUTO!" Melody cried, rushing over to him, only to stop dead and gawk as she watched Naruto's spirit rise up from his body.

Naruto looked the same as he did when alive but now his legs were gone and in their place was a single tail, his eyes were a full glowing blue with no iris or pupil, and his "skin tone" was neon orange in color.

Naruto's spirit rubbed his head, "...Ok...OW!...what the hell was that? It worked before..." he muttered, shaking his head to clear it. As he did, the Uzumaki noticed something seemed... odd...he felt weird. Detached...and why did he feel so light?

Before he could ponder it further, he was tackled by a very happy Melody, knocking him down and wrapping around him in much the same way as before in the when trying to keep him from running from her in the Conservatory. She couldn't help it. To her, he looked absolutely amazing.

"Gah...! Melody, what's gotten int...huh?!" Naruto began, only to see a body in the middle of the room all of a sudden. However, getting a look at the face, Naruto yelped upon realizing it was his own corpse on the floor!

He went stiff and his eyes widened while he started to shake all over. Just because his fear of ghosts was muffled didn't mean much in the face of him **BEING ONE!**

Screaming bloody murder and starting to hyperventilate, he then unkowningly launched himself back, to flying in a panicked-induced frenzy. Naruto flew up but suddenly found himself flying down fast and he tried to fix himself until went into the floor, somehow crashing into it while only leaving his tail out of it as he struggled to get out, "Rookie...", Melody said to herself while shaking her head, but she figured she could teach Naruto everything he needed to know.

Then before she could help him out, Naruto had finally managed to pull himself free from the floor, but he launched himself like a missile, tumbling as he went, and crashed into a wall, but this time with his waist up showing out of it and Naruto tried to free himself until he finally did and he sent himself flying towards a mirror which he bounced off and was sent into one of the upper floor doors.

Melody rushed after him and dive bombed the "younger" ghost to the floor as he continued to panic, before taking his hands in her own and pulling him up, "Well...you need to learn the "basics" of being a ghost." She told her fellow blond spirit, "Here, I'll help you."

"Help me?! HOW can anyone help me?!"

"Please, my soulmate!" Melody pleaded, "calm down! This is actually more useful than you think."

" _ **USEFUL?!**_ " Naruto shrieked, "Are you _**NUTS**_ , Melody?! I'm dead! How can I accomplish anything?!"

"Snap out of it!" she cried, her hand zooming up and colliding with his cheek, palm first.

Naruto stared, eyes wide at the slap. He'd actually felt that.

"Better? Sorry, but you need to calm down..." his companion sighed, then looked at him, "Now, as I was saying, this state could be useful to you. Calm down, my soulmate, let me see something." Melody said in hopes of calming him down.

He nodded and she went over, pulling him along as they held hands, and leaned her head against his body's chest and smiled when she heard the sound of his heart slowly, but surely still beating.

"It's okay! You're not really dead, but your just having a "out-of-body" experience. That shock must have done a real number on you to knock your spirit out of your unconscious body. But as long as nothing serious happens to your body, you'll be fine for when you go back into your body." She smiled as she pulled away from Naruto's physical self to smile at his spirit.

Naruto's eyes widened, _back into his body?!_ THAT got his attention. "Say what?!" he cried even as the news got him to relax. Even if he didn't understand everything, he got the underlining message: he wasn't really dead.

"Well, more on explaining this later. But like I was saying, this could be helpful to you if you learn to use it right." Melody soothed him, "you see, ghosts don't bother other ghosts, they tend to leave each other alone; and you did say some of the reasons ghosts made you uneasy was they can turn invisible, go through solid objects, and can possess things...you can do those things now too while you're this way. Think about how much those kinds of abilities will help in finding your friends."

Naruto's eyes widened. He'd been so panicked that he hadn't thought of that...but now...oh, yes, he could see the appeal.

"...Ok, I get it, but...why did this happen? I could do it before without anything like this happening." Naruto wondered, looking himself over.

"The Boos called you a cheater...what was that about?"

"Well...the Boos sounded kind of ticked off when I used this trick I created from back when I was a little kid earlier. Basically, I applied a way to fiddle around inside a lock until it opens whatever door I need to go into..."

"You used a cheat code?!" his companion gawked.

"Huh?" Naruto asked, "A what?"

"You did something that made things easier that they were supposed or even allowed to be." Melody clarified.

"You think I care about or want to follow the Boos' rules when they dragged me and my friends into this in the first place? And would I really have the time needed for that?" Naruto snapped, downright annoyed.

Melody nodded. Point to her soulmate about that. "Understandable. Now...I think needing to learn being a ghost is in order."

Taking a deep breath, he exhaled and nodded.

"First thing's first, need to learn to move on your own." the ghost girl said and Naruto's eyes darted to her hand.

"Melody, please don't let go! I'm not sure I can do this by myself!" Naruto yelped nervously.

The female specter blushed, delighted by her soulmate wanting them to keep hold of one another. "I don't want to, but..." she let go and floated backwards a few feet from him as Naruto windmilled his arms, trying to stay balanced.

"Now, my Soulmate...moving's easy, just think of it as when you're swimming." Melody told him, catching his attention as he flopped around. "Even hovering in place works that way."

"Uhh...do I have to paddle...stroke...whatever?" The new ghost asked.

Melody giggled, amused by the question. "No. Now..." she held her arms out, wide and expectant, "come to me!"

Naruto nodded and tried to go towards Melody, but even as a ghost, apparently gravity was NOT his friend. Naruto struggled in the air as he tried to reach her. It took a while, but Naruto started to get the hang of it as he managed to keep afloat in the air until he flew towards Melody and finally his ghostly hands grabbed onto hers.

"Well done, my Soulmate! I knew that you could do it!", Melody said joyfully, pulling him close and kissing him on the nose before letting him go.

Naruto nodded, "Next lesson?"

"Ok then. Let's try phasing. Phasing through objects could be like...going through a bubble without popping it as you go through it...like nothing can literally stop you from going through anything you want. Basically, tell yourself the solid object isn't really there. Understood, Soulmate?"

Naruto nodded. That would be easy enough.

Melody then pointed at the covered mirror, "Then I want you to phase right through that mirror, sheet and all, completely at least three times, just so you get the hang of it."

Nodding, Naruto began to slowly float toward the mirror, before shutting his eyes and began to think how he could not be stopped and that nothing could block his progress, thinking on his desire to save his friends helped with that. After all, he wouldn't let anything stop him from making sure they were safe. Then went forward and cracked an eye open. Before opening his eyes fully and smirking as he saw that when he made contact with the sheet, he was still going, and then phased his head through both the sheet and the mirror until he completely phased through both the objects one time.

Then from behind the covered mirror, Naruto did it again, only this time a little faster and with the same thought and he saw that he did it again and for the last time he successfully made through the third and final time while hearing Melody clapping for him with a smile on her face.

Smiling at his understanding, Melody continued, "Next is possession. It's the same as going through things, but stopping part way. Like taking a rest inside what you're going through." she looked around the room for something for Naruto to possess, but unfortunately there didn't seem to be anything good for that in the foyer. Turning to Naruto with a disappointment, she sighed, "I'm sorry, my Soulmate, but there's not much in this room for you to possess..."

Feeling a little down, Naruto quickly shook off the disappointment. "That's fine. Can always try it in another room with more stuff in it."

Hearing how upbeat he was made the pianist smile to herself Good point.  
That out of the way, she then had an idea as she then looked at Naruto, "I know what you can learn next... Shape Shifting, a ghost's personal favorite trick!"

This caught Naruto's attention as he looked ready and willing to learn this one.

"Now...for shape shifting, all you have to do is simply visualize what you want to be turn into and concentrate. Focus on the form you're trying to take the shape of."

Naruto's jaw dropped at that. No way! The same principle as the transformation jutsu back home, only without needing handsigns or chakra?! Was it THAT simple?!

Closing his mouth, he cleared his throat, "Uh...sure...I can handle that..."

At her skeptical look, Naruto smiled and with a popping sound like a light bulb going out, Melody's jaw dropped as the piano player was suddenly facing herself as if she were looking in a mirror.

"Well? How'd I do, sensei?" The second Melody asked.

Melody gawked. No way...he even _sounded_ just like her! She put her hands on where her hips would be if she had legs, giving him a look, "How did you...? Are you holding out on me?"

Naruto laughed as he resumed his normal form, "Nope, just used to it. Like messing with people...pulling pranks, so I had to get good at looking and sounding like others to keep from getting caught."

Hearing Naruto explain all this to her made Melody understand how Naruto could learn the art of shape shifting so easily, if what he said was true, then he was practically a master of the art by default!

Shaking off her shock, Melody then thought of Naruto's final lesson, at least for now, then her eyes widened, and she looked at Naruto. "Very good, Soulmate!" Melody clapped, delighted. "You're a quick study at this!" then she looked somewhat confused, "What did you call me earlier?"

"Hm? Oh. Sensei. Where I'm from, it means 'teacher'." Naruto explained, "Seeing as you're helping me learn this ghost gig..."

She beamed, feeling flattered her soulmate viewed and valued her aid that highly. It made her feel good almost to the point of Crossing Over!

"Alright then, my Soulmate, for your final lesson, at least for now... is to learn how to turn invisible at will..."

Hearing this, Naruto was VERY interested into learning this ability, as this would help him immensely in looking for all of his friends without being seen. "Ready, Melody!"

Smiling, she nodded, "Good. As for turning invisible, you just need to visualize yourself disappearing from sight and holding it, until you want to be seen. Try it."

Nodding, Naruto closed his eyes and began to concentrate on the simple thought of just fading into the scenery as if he was part of it...his form growing fainter every second until he was eventually gone completely.

"My Soulmate? I think you already did it..." Melody said as she started looking around the room for any hint of where Naruto actually was. She floated in the air looking for Naruto, but what she didn't know that Naruto was right behind her. Seeing this was his chance, Naruto revealed himself and shouted from behind Melody.

"BOOOOOOOOOO!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Melody screamed from the scare as she whipped around, her face instantly turned from scared to outrage as she saw Naruto now floating and laughing his lungs out. If he still had lungs in his present state, anyway.

"I-I'm so sorry, Melody... But I just couldn't resist... And you should've seen the look on your face! Priceless! Hahahaha!"

He was so busy laughing, he failed to see her scowling, but his laughing stopped when she slapped Naruto so hard the Uzumaki ghost was literally sent flying upward towards the upstairs hallway and phased through it. When he got there, Naruto was apparently doing a ghost's impression of a pinball bouncing around until he finally crashed against a wall and his head got stuck in the keyhole of a door.

Groaning, he shook his head. "Why did Melody have to slap me so hard for?"

Then, all of a sudden, he heard a voice he knew. And it sounded like it was sobbing.

INO!

Looking around for where exactly it was coming from, Naruto found himself in a woman's bedroom and with a bit of strained grunting, squeezed his body through the keyhole the rest of the way, only to gasp as he saw an oil painting hung on the wall, one that featured Ino!

His gasp drawing attention, the Ino in the portrait surprised him by moving. She looked up, laid her eyes on him, and she let out a shocked, muffled scream at the sight of Naruto's ghostly form.

"N-n-n-n-Nah-Naruto?!" the trapped girl shrieked, "You're one of _THEM_?!"

"Ino!" Naruto sighed, relieved at finding one of his friends, then looked down at himself and back up at her, realizing what she had yelled about, "Long story short, sort of an out of body experience thing. Tell you later...just remind me to thank Melody, afterwards." Naruto told his fellow blond, "first, let's get you out of here." his words getting an eager nod of agreement from the kunoichi. Reaching to remove the painting from the wall, he tried to grab it, only for his eyes to widen as his ghostly fingers phased through it.

"What?!"

He tried again with the same ineffectiveness. Growing more frantic and desperate with each failure, "No, no, no! Stupid ghost hands!" The Uzumaki cursed, glaring at said hands as if to intimidate them into solid matter.

Oh, come on...this was just perfect! He'd found one of his friends, but couldn't do anything! DAMN THE BOOS!

Frustrated, Naruto floated around the room, trying to see how he could help Ino get out of the portrait, until the two blonds heard the door handle jiggle.

Panicked, Naruto thought back to the one lesson Melody hadn't been able to have him do, then flew into the nearest thing to hide in that he saw; then gaped as he realized it was a powder puff jar just before a female ghost entered the room and floated towards the mirror, sat down, looking at her reflection.

Frowning slightly, the woman's spirit opened the powder puff jar and then pulled out the pink powder puff that was now possessed by Naruto.

From Naruto's point of view, he felt her ghostly fingers touch his vessel, fingers lightly digging into his back, and his...for lack of a better term, stomach...lurched as he was lifted up to her face and exposing the bottom of the puff, where his eyes were located due to his rushed possession of the object, to a spirit with blue "skin" and bright, yellow eyes, similar to Melody's own. She had an oval face and short, blond hair that frilled up at the ends. She was dressed very simply, only wearing a pink bath robe with a white lining at the sleeves and the bottom.

The ghost then used him in her face, rapidly pounding him against her face and she even used Naruto on her lips as well.

To Naruto, he was suddenly, lightly jabbed forward. Making contact with her face and he sneezed to himself within the puff as clouds of powder spread and made his eyes water.

As the female phantom continued powdering herself with Naruto, she stopped suddenly as she heard the crying of a baby. Setting the puff down, she floated to go check on what was most likely her child.

Once the she-specter was gone, Naruto exited the puff, dizzy. "...Ugh..." he groaned, "Suffering spooks, that wasn't fun..."

"Suffering spooks?! Where did you get _that_ from, a cartoon show?!" Ino demanded, "Hurry and get me out already!"

"I can't touch...oh!" Naruto said, then made for the door.

"Wait! Don't leave me here!" Ino yelped, eyes wide and started to bang on her painting's frame.

Turning back to her, Naruto sighed before giving the Yamanaka a reassuring look, "I just need to go get my body! Ino, I'll be back, I promise. Once I do, I'll be able to get you out of that painting. Please, just wait for me, ok?"

At that, Ino started taking deep breaths; knowing how Naruto was with his promises. And what he was saying made sense. He knew where to find her, now. But couldn't physically interact with her prison while he was like this. He NEEDED his body if he was going to get her out. "...Ok...but you better be back."

"Don't go anywhere." the whiskered teen instructed.

"Haha, very funny, Naruto..." the mind-walker said flatly, tone sarcastic.

Naruto only shot her a grin and dived down through the floor.

* * *

Panting, it took Melody a few seconds to realized what she'd just done. "...GAH! I STRUCK MY SOULMATE!"

Idiot woman! Most ghosts had a penchant for mischief, and he'd said he was a prankster already! WHAT HAD SHE DONE?! Scrambling upwards and through the floor, arriving in the second level of the mansion, she started looking around frantically, a way to make amends being forefront in her thoughts as she zoomed through the walls.

From the crying and then the silence she heard a few moments into her search for Naruto, she guessed Lydia had been up and about, tending to Chauncey.

After getting her baby to settle down, Lydia made her way back to her room to continue her beautification, but stopped dead (no pun intended) in her tracks at who she saw zipping around, seemingly looking for something.

"Melody?!" Lydia gaped, then she smiled, "Well...this is a rare sight. You're out of the Conservatory!"

Turning to the other she-specter, Melody smiled slightly and nodded. She knew it was rare for her to leave the instrument-filled room. "Well...some things came up and here I am."

That instantly caught the mother's attention. "Oh? What could have happened to pry you away from your music?"

"Well...I..." Melody trailed off, blushing as she muttered something under her figurative breath.

"Hm? Didn't catch that, dear." Lydia prompted.

"...I said I met someone." The pianist repeated with a sigh.

Oh-ho! Now THIS was interesting! "Do tell, Melody!" Lydia gushed, "What are they like? Must be something special to get you away from your keyboard!"

Melody smiled with pure affection, "He's clear as a music note, sincere as a melody. In short, he's my Soulmate."

Lydia's jaw dropped. WHAT?! Did she hear that right?! Did Melody know what those words meant when a spirit uttered them? It meant much more than just wanting to be with someone. By declaring that, Melody sworn that she would love no other until her dying day...and as a ghost, she was already dead, and couldn't die again!

"NNNNOOOOOO!"

At the agonized wail, both ladies sighed. Knowing it was Shivers, the Wandering Butler. He was smitten with Melody, but she didn't return his affections.

"My enemy...damn you! How dare you steal the affections of the beautiful Melody Pianissima from me...! You shall pay, enemy! I swear it!" Shivers snarled through his tears.

* * *

Exiting through the floor, Naruto quickly found himself back to the foyer. Only to freeze upon seeing what was missing. The newly-spectral ninja paled until he was stark while all over.

"What the...?! HEY! WHERE THE HELL'S MY BODY?!" Naruto shouted.


End file.
